Comparison of sealer penetration of sonic activation versus conventional needle irrigation: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Table 8 Certainty of the evidence from included studies based on GRADEprofiler

Comparison	Number of studies	Study design	Risk of bias	Inconsistency	Indirectness	Imprecision	Other considerations	Certainty
Certainty assessment
P&A	Eight	RCT	Serious^a	Serious^b	No	No	No	LOW
P&M	Four	RCT	Serious^a	No	No	No	No	MODERATE
P&C	Eight	RCT	Serious^a	No	No	No	No	MODERATE
MD&A	Seven	RCT	Serious^a	Serious^b	No	No	No	LOW
MD&M	Four	RCT	Serious^a	Serious^b	No	No	No	LOW
MD&C	Seven	RCT	Serious^a	No	No	No	No	MODERATE

P&A, P&M, and P&C represent percentage of sealer penetration in the apical, middle, and coronal third respectively
MD&A, MD&M and MD&C represent maximum depth of sealer penetration in the apical, middle, and coronal third respectively
^aAll studies included had a bias accroding to Table 7
^bHigh heterogeneity (I² ˃ 50%) has been shown accroding to (Fig. 2a–c) & (Fig. 3a–c)

ISSN: 1472-6831